Posts Tagged ‘go with the flø’

Magne and his wife Heidi were at Flø this weekend, where they attended the annual Go With The Flø art festival. The festival included an exhibition by Damien Hirst and two concerts by Lowell.

But this year Magne was not exhibiting or performing himself:

“This time I’m only here to enjoy myself. Go With The Flø is great opportunity to make a visit to Western Norway and meet friends and acquaintances. And I’m here together with my London gallerist, Paul Stolper, who is also Damien Hirst’s gallerist”, Magne told Sunnmørsposten.

The festival’s Facebook page has a few photos of Magne and Simen Staalnacke (Moods of Norway) fishing and standing in front of a new ice cream van.

Magne opened the third annual “Go With The Flø” art festival with a special fanfare on Sunday, June 24th, performed on “Desibel”, the world’s largest mobile horn, and featuring audio samples of tractors, local cows and workers at a nearby shipyard.

Last month, Magne stated that the bass frequency created by “Desibel” is capable of physically moving a cow. Luckily, no cows were tipped over by the sounds coming from the massive horn, but the fanfare did manage to make a bunch of them run away in panic.

“Hugo [Opdal] asked me if I wanted to turn the sound recordings into music. Which I was happy to do. It’s become a musical interpretation of the area”, Magne told newspaper Vikebladet on Friday.

Later on, British musician Robyn Hitchcock played a concert at Vonheim, the local village hall. Magne, along with Anne Lise Frøkedal og Frode Strømstad, joined Hitchcock on stage.

A video from the concert can be seen here.
Around 2000 people found their way to Flø during Sunday’s festival.

“Everything is special at Flø. The village has become a center of experimental behaviour. In my opinion, this is the most tolerant village in Norway. When we arrived with the horn, the locals stood by the road, smiling and waving”, Magne told Sunnmørsposten.

Magne was interviewed in Sunnmørsposten’s paper edition on Friday, about the upcoming Go With the Flø festival on June 24th, where he will use the “Desibel” horn system to perform a specially made sound collage.

“It will be an opening fanfare based on sound recordings from the shipbuilding industry – made at the Kleven Verft shipyard, and sounds from the village of Flø. A collage of different sounds. I think this will be a radio hit on P3 this summer”, he jokes.

“The horns form a sort of sculpture of different frequencies. It’s a monumental way of spreading sound.”

The largest horn is 12 meters long. “Desibel” is currently being used at an art festival in Denmark, but will soon be on its way to Flø.

“People can expect a really powerful sound. The bass frequency is capable of physically moving a cow”, Magne says. Therefore he thinks it’s wise for people to bring ear protection to the festival.

“We will of course try to spread the sound carefully, but the sound collage is meant to give the audience both a mental and physical experience.”

This will be the fourth time Magne visits Flø with different art projects, following “Anticlimax” in 2008, “Camera” in 2009 and the Apparatjik concert in 2010.

“Flø is sort of addictive. It’s an incredibly great place to be. So when you first make a visit, you get addicted to the place”, he says.

The mobile horn system "Desibel" at Vevring in 2009
(Picture from Vikebladet)

The third annual Go With the Flø art festival is held on Sunday, June 24th this year, and once again Magne will play a central part in the proceedings, newspaper Vikebladet reports.

The festival is set to open with a new piece of music composed by Magne, which will be played on the world’s largest mobile horn loudspeaker system called “Desibel” – first used by composer Maja Ratkje at the Vevring exhibition in 2009.

Magne’s composition is based on sounds recorded at a local shipyard and in the village of Flø.

British musician Robyn Hitchcock will play a special concert at the festival, and will be joined by Magne on stage, in addition to Anne Lise Frøkedal og Frode Strømstad from the band I Was a King.

Magne is also one of the artists taking part in a group exhibition at Flø, along with Bjarne Melgaard, Damien Hirst, Jim Medway and others.

One section of the exhibition is called “Go With the Flø New Talents”, and is a chance for young artists to show their works. The artists have been selected by Magne, Paul Stolper and Håvard Vikhagen.

The four members of Apparatjik held their second ever concert/art-performance as part of Hugo Opdal’s “Go with the Flø” art festival on Friday, June 5th.

“We are four musicians who perform and create things together within a short period of time. It may sound like a concert, but we view it more as a discussion forum“, Magne told TV2’s evening news.

The concert had been criticized in the local press beforehand, because of the steep ticket prices; 2000 Kroner ($309) per ticket. And according to Sunnmørsposten, not a single ticket was sold in advance (although Hugo Opdal claimed he had sold 20 tickets on Facebook). But the sales picked up when the price was lowered to 1000 Kroner shortly before the concert. Many local people at Flø and random people visiting were also allowed to enter for free, to fill up the venue.

Magne and Jonas emerging from the cube(Picture from Sunnmørsposten)

Apparatjik also launched their “Bolshevik Box” at Flø – a limited edition box set containing a CD, DVD, 12″ vinyl record and one of eight art prints. The Apparatjik prints were also exhibited on the walls of Hugo Opdal’s gallery.

An NRK news report about the art festival can be seen at NRK.no. There are some screenshots on the WOTM forum.

The first “Go with the Flø” art and music festival will be held at Flø in Norway on 5 – 6 June. The festival was supposed to be held in June 2009, but had to be postponed to 2010 instead.

In addition to exhibiting some new artworks, Magne will be performing at the festival – provided there is enough time between a-ha dates.

“Magne is touring Europe with a-ha around that time, but he will try to be here if it’s possible. And then he will take part in the festival both as a musician and an artist“, festival organizer Hugo Opdal tells local newspaper Vikebladet’s paper edition.